If you are a Democratic member of the Congress, and are paying close attention to public policy issues, you may find yourself in this situation:
You support the massive "path to citizenship" for illegals backed by the president
You support the president's efforts to restrict gun rights (as do I).
You know that illegal aliens currently cannot legally own guns.
Thus, by backing the amnesty, you would be expanding — eventually — the number of people who may lawfully own guns by 11 million or so — and every one of the 11 million would have a record of breaking the law!
It is clear that illegals cannot legally own firearms, and that green card holders and citizens can, but where along that spectrum the newly amnestied illegals would fit before they got their green cards is an open question.
As an article in a recent issue of the electronic publication, Immigration Daily, points out, the gun-owning situation for nonimmigrants is a bit confusing; according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, non-visa-bearing nonimmigrants (such as those here on the visa-waiver program) are allowed to have firearms, but visa-bearing ones (such as H-1Bs) are not. Go figure.
I wish the anti-gun lobby, newly strengthened by the awful massacre at Newtown, Conn., would pay attention to not granting gun rights to illegals by simply not giving them amnesty.
